GENEVA - United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay is awaiting permission from Egypt's military authorities to send experts who would help in mapping the nation's transition to democracy, UN aides said on Wednesday. By accepting the mission, the new rulers in Cairo could prove their sincerity in promising the Egyptian people to work for a free society, the aides told a news briefing in Geneva. Requests for such a mission had come in from groups which staged the protests that led to President Hosni Mubarak's overthrow last Friday, said Anders Kompass, Pillay's director for operations and technical cooperation. "The idea is to see how we can help the transition to democracy from the human rights perspective," Kompass said. "We would like to send the team within the next few days, but so far we have not had the green light from Cairo." As anti-government demonstrations continued in a number of Middle Eastern and North African countries, Pillay's specialist on the top rule of law, Mona Rishmawi, said governments must observe the right of citizens to protest peacefully and refrain from using force against them. "She (Pillay) wants to be with the people," Rishmawi told the briefing.
